Conference Realignment: A Modest Proposal

It’s hard to believe that the arch-rival of my alma mater, Duke, is now Syracuse. Or is it Notre Dame? Or was that Texas A&M? Weber State? I’m so confused.

The ACC used to be so predictable, year in and year out. Maryland, Virginia, Wake, NC State, UNC, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech ... Heck, I remember when Florida State came into the conference (and I wasn’t too happy about it either). But where the heck is Boston College coming from? Or Pitt? Why is Maryland leaving? And what in the heck does Notre Dame have to do with the coast of the Atlantic Ocean?

It’s a problem that fans are having to deal with all over the country. You’re aware, aren’t you, that the Big 10 now has twelve schools (and will have even more when football season starts again this fall)? Or that the Big 12 now has ten schools (and that one of those schools, West Virginia, is about 900 miles away from its nearest conference rival)?

I know it all has to do with money somehow. It’s not something that makes any sense to me, though, and I have to admit I just simply don’t like it all.

So, here’s my modest proposal for some conferences that really make sense, and that – more importantly – do a great deal to soothe my tortured soul. It’s kind of a unique combination of tradition and geography. Whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s a lot better than what we’ve got now.

The Big Boys

The top level of Div I athletics has a fair amount of stability. These schools have been around awhile, and their conferences are a little more set. So, most of these conferences will look very familiar to you – the ACC, the Big 10, the PAC 10. The Big East and the SEC should look pretty familiar, with a few little changes.

There’s another conference that should look pretty familiar, but which I’m giving a new name. The Plains Conference is basically the Big 12, with a few additions and subtractions. I mean, hey, why name your conference after a number, when that number changes every year?

Now, there is one conference that really is a bit “out there.” I just so happened to notice that Texas has a ton of great schools, but they seem to spread them over a dozen different conferences. So, why don’t we put them all together right? Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Lone Star Conference.

ACC	Big 10	Pac 10	Big East	SEC	Plains	Lone Star **
MD	Ohio St	Wash	Boston Coll	Miami *	Iowa	Texas
VA	Indiana	Wash St	Syracuse	Florida	Iowa St	Texas Tech
VA Tech	Purdue	Oregon	Rutgers	Florida St *	Missou	TCU
Wake	Notre Dame	Oregon St	Army *	Georgia	Nebraska	Texas A&M
UNC	Michigan	Stanford	Penn St *	Vanderbilt	Kansas St	SMU
NC State	Mich St	Cal	Pitt	Tennessee	Kansas	Baylor
SC	Illinois	USC	WV	Kentucky	Oklahoma	Houston
Clemson	Northwestern	UCLA	Navy	Auburn	Okla St	Rice
Ga Tech	Wisconsin	Arizona		Alabama	Colorado
	Minnesota	Arizona St		Ole Miss
				Miss St
				LSU
				Arkansas

* Never in the conference (all the rest were, at one time or other)
** Brand new conference

By the way, the SEC is big enough that it needs two divisions. I’m seeing a good division between the eastern schools (the top seven) and the western ones (the bottom six).

• Lt. blue – Pac 10
• Black – Plains
• Red – Lone Star
• Royal blue – Big 10
• Yellow, left of the line – SEC West
• Yellow, right of the line – SEC East
• Orange – ACC
• Green – Big East

The Second Tier

The next group of schools shows a lot more fluidity. A lot of them are newer, so they lack the tradition that that first group has. They’re also smaller, so they might have to move around a little bit to find their place in the sun.

Now, there are definitely some conferences that will look familiar to you – the Ivy League, the Mid-American, the Western Athletic ... There are also some that shouldn’t be too far of a stretch – Conference USA, the Sun Belt, and the Mountain West. I am, though, adding a brand new one, the South Atlantic, which is basically just a grab-bag for all the leftovers.

This is also where we start to get into some of the non-football schools. I’ve shown those in italics in the table and as triangles on the map. Rest assured, though, there’s plenty of football schools at this level that nobody should have any problems with their fall sports schedules.

Ivy	Mid-American	Western Athletic	Conference USA
Dartmouth	N Illinois	Hawaii	Memphis
Harvard	Ball St	San Jose	W Kentucky *
Brown	West Mich	Fresno	DePaul
Yale	Central Mich	San Diego St	Marquette
Columbia	East Mich	Nevada	Butler *
Cornell	Toledo	UNLV	Cincinnati
Princeton	Bowling Green	Utah	Xavier *
Penn	Miami OH	Utah St	Louisville
	Ohio	BYU	Marshall
	Kent
	Akron

Mountain West	Sunbelt	South Atlantic **
Idaho *	UTEP *	Middle Tenn
Boise St	N Texas	So Alabama
Wyoming	Texas St	Troy
Colo St	Tulsa *	UAB
Air Force	Arkansas-LR	E Carolina
New Mexico	Ark St	Fla Intl
NM St	LA Tech	Fla Atl
Texas-Arl	LA-Lafayette	UCF
UTSA	LA-Monroe	USF
	Tulane
	Southern Miss

* Never in the conference (all the rest were, at one time or other)
** Brand new conference

The second tier’s got two conferences that need to be divided up, the Mid-American and the Sun Belt. For both, I’m making a break between the top five and the bottom six.

• Lt. blue – Western Athletic
• Black – Mountain West
• Red – Sun Belt 
• Royal blue – Conference USA
• Orange – Mid-American
• Yellow – South Atlantic
• Green – Ivy

The Basketball Schools

Now we are getting into a little different territory. These schools tend to have great basketball teams and no football teams. 

There are a few who do have football though. They’re all in one conference – what I’m calling the Little East – so I guess they can play each other then find some other teams outside their conference. Once again, italics and triangles means no football.

Atlantic	West Coast	Little East	Miss Valley
VCU	Gonzaga	Providence	N Iowa
Geo Wash	Seattle	UMass	Drake
Richmond	Portland	UConn	Creighton
St Joseph	San Fran	St John	Missou St
LaSalle	Santa Clara	Seton Hall	St Louis *
Duquesne	Pepperdine	Villanova	Wichita St
St Bonny	Loyola Marymount	Temple *	S Illinois
Fordham	San Diego	Georgetown	Illinois St
Rhode Isl		Buffalo *	Bradley
			Indiana St
			Evansville
			Dayton *

* Never in the conference (all the rest were, at one time or other)

There's one conference that needs to be divided up, the Mississippi Valley. It, though, involves an even split between the top six (west of the squiggly line) and the bottom six (east of the squiggly line - roughly, the Mississippi River). 

• Lt. blue – West Coast
• Royal blue – Mississippi Valley
• Yellow – Atlantic
• Green – Little East

So, there you go, NCAA! Have at it!